Chapter 25 The Curfew (1/2)
”121”.
”Did you find all of them?”
”We can't be sure. But some of them had more than one animal inside”.
”Then...how long has this thing been around?”
”...”
”We can't tell. But best estimates are around two years”.
Silence befell the room, and Baron Peters stepped forward, ”Call a Curfew. Everyone is to be in their homes by the time the sun sets. We can assume from the evidence we've collected that this thing hunts at night...so we'll need a few volunteers to go out and hunt it then seeing as we've been quite unsuccessful during daylight. The rest will have to take turns patrolling the streets”.
”Is a curfew really necessary? It hasn't stepped foot out of the forest”.
”As far as we can tell. But this thing was smart enough to bury its kills, and well. It was only after Marcus noticed a patch of very fresh vegetation among a dry clearing that we found the first one. If its smart enough to do that, it might be smart enough to hunt outside the forest in other areas,” Sir Carter stated, ”The Curfew will be enforced from tomorrow night, and we'll need people on watch tonight”.
”We can't sustain this forever, Sir Carter. We'll have the full harvest soon, we'll need all the helping hands we can get”.
There was silence for a moment before Baron Peters spoke up again.
”I'll send word of this to my contacts in Varkevia. Hopefully, they can send some troops and hunters to help out in a week's time”.
This was the best that could be done, so the meeting was dismissed after sorting out the watchers for the night.
Phillip returned to the house quickly, though he would know of the fact that the graves had been found, Rassa wouldn't know about the curfew. Phillip felt immense relief when he found his sun finishing off dinner with his mother.
”Phillip?” asked Anna as she looked up. Seeing the concern on her husband's face, she frowned, ”Is it bad?”
Phillip glanced briefly at Rassa before turning back to his wife, ”A curfew will be enforced from tomorrow at sun set. There will also be hunting parties scouring the forest at night, and volunteers patrolling the streets to ensure the curfew is kept”.
”How many did they find?” asked Rassa.
Phillip heistated, the sighed, ”121. They estimated it's been around for two years rather than the few days we initially thought, and they know it's intelligent by how it hid the graves”.
Rassa looked away as Anna covered her mouth in shock, ”Are we safe here?”
”It hasn't disturbed us yet,” Rassa stated, ”We'll be fine, mother. The Baron and Sir Carter are just taking precautions, right father?”
Phillip nodded, ”Of course”.
Rassa finished off his dinner, then took and book and retreated into his room. After Phillip ate his meal, he stood, handing his bowl to his wife, ”I'll go and check on Rassa”.